Bullying is a blight on our society. If only the Daily Mail could see the role that it plays in encouraging that kind of behaviour. I just posted this article on my blog at http://www.p0pvulture.blogspot.com

You can't beat a bit of bully

OK, so writing a post in defense of Heather Mills feels rather counter-intuitive, like shepherding children back into a burning orphanage. But why exactly is there so much antipathy to one of the richest ex-wives in England?

Most of the blame clearly lies with the press, who were quick to portray her as the kind of wicked stepmother that even the Brothers Grimm would find outlandish. Then again, if you were put in the unenviable position of being stepmother to Stella McCartney, you'd be speed-dialling the bearded huntsman or pointing her in the direction of the nearest gingerbread cottage before the wedding breakfast was over.

Of course, Heather didn't help matters, having breakdowns on breakfast TV and turning the divorce court hearings into outtakes from Dynasty, minus the clip-on earrings. As a consequence, she's now fair game for anyone with a spare joke about prosthetic limbs.

So we shouldn't really be surprised that Baroness Blackheart, AKA Amanda Platell, saw the chance for a few lazy digs at Heather's expense, once she got her withered claws on some nefarious pictures of the ex-Mrs McCartney in training for Dancing on Ice.

Platell's article claimed that Heather was 'desperate' to get on the show, and had recruited a trainer to help her - as though adequate preparation was something to be sniffed at. But the real ugliness came in the form of the Mail's now obligatory rhetorical questions: "Why does she roll up one trouser leg to show her prosthetic limb, yet leaves the other leg covered? Not still milking the sympathy vote, are we pet?"

Unsurprisingly, Heather's not too chuffed with Amanda's spiteful snippery, taking to Twitter to voice her disgust. "She said I kept my trouser leg rolled up to show off my prosthetic, UNTRUE. It was rolled up so Bob Watts the prosthetist could see the alignment and work out why I could not do crossovers without catching my blade and falling over."

The thing is, there's nothing new about Amanda Platell's uninformed, open-ended cruelty. The Daily Mail has been busy developing its signature bullying tone over time, and it's becoming more and more prevalent. Just take a look at the stories from the last week, and how they were headlined:

Can't remember your own songs Leona?
If Cheryl Cole spends £200,000 a year on her appearance... who was responsible for this Halloween horror?
Get a bra, Britney!
Mariah squeezes her voluptuous figure into a revealing leotard for new video (but only just)
Isn't it a bit cold for that Lady GaGa?

The snippy, supercilious tone that runs through all of these lines clearly positions the Mail as the journalistic equivalent of the immaculately dressed bitches that figure in most American high school dramas. They spot a weakness or insecurity and exploit it with little or no understanding of the context.

The cruel irony is that today's Daily Mail cover laments the tragic death of a woman who died in a house-fire, whilst trying to save her son, who had been teased for his learning difficulties. It seems that bullying is only ugly and cruel when someone else is doing it.

I know it's like flogging a dead horse, but there was a load more bullshit in the Mail yesterday. Needed to write a follow up - http://p0pvulture.blogspot.com/2010/01/from-bad-to-worse.html - text reproduced belowI had a feeling they may change some of their headlines, and lo and behold they did, so I'm glad I captured screen grabs as the stories appeared on the website yesterday.

From Bad To Worse

Regular readers of my blog will know that I have something of a love-hate relationship with the Daily Mail. I love the fact that it aggregates a whole host of celebrity and entertainment stories, but lament the sneery, bullying tone it adopts when reporting them.

It's the paper's innate sense of superiority that troubles me, even more than its loathsome xenophobia or fanatical dedication to a Britain that only ever existed in Enid Blyton's most halucinogenic cheese dreams.

Thankfully though, there's a delicious irony in the fact that its tone seems to be growing ever more supercilious, even as the quality of its reporting spirals irrevocably down the drain. Three examples in today's edition really caught my eye.

The first was a story about Gemma Arterton who has spoken out about the way Brits love to build up home-grown talent, only to knock it down at the first sign of success. Let's be honest, the woman has a point. So how does the Mail trail the feature in its margin?

'If you're successful in Britain, people tend not to like you': Gemma Arterton says her looks and success come at a price. Poor little Bond girl.

Not getting off to the best of starts then. Addressing Gemma's claims, the Mail says "According to her, we simply don't like pretty girls who do well." Perhaps they're going to disprove her theory with an even-handed approach to the subject? "Obviously being a woman of both beauty and ability can be a burden. But Miss Arterton, it seems, is confident she can handle the pressure."

I'd say that was a 'no'.

OK, so Gemma's young and hot - she can take care of herself. What about Sylvester Stallone? The 63-year old film-maker recently broke his neck while filming the action movie The Expendables. He told FHM Magazine "Actually, my fight with Stone Cold Steve Austin was so vicious that I ended up getting a hairline fracture in my neck. I'm not joking...I had to have a very serious operation afterwards. I now have a metal plate in my neck."

But it's not all just snide remarks and holier-than-thou editorial. Sometimes it's just the laziest journalism on record. Today's finest non-story is a 'before they were famous' piece about everyone's favourite spinster songbird Susan Boyle. Prepare yourself now, this is some exciting stuff...

In a Daily Mail showbiz exclusive, the paper breathlessly announced that a woman called Tori Graham found half of someone who may have been Susan Boyle, in a photo that was taken at Edinburgh Waverley station in 2002. This is what the Pulitzer was invented for.To paraphrase Oscar Wilde - we are all in the gutter press, but some of us are looking up the skirts of the stars.

Not sure if this is the right heading to put this under, but it feels like it. 'Daily Mail versus the 20C' might be more like it (and no, I'm not making a mistake over what century we're in.) No doubt the moaners will be the same ones who last week were AGHAST! at the fact that many young people don't know how to make custard or gravy. The very idea of a meal without home-made custard or gravy!

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No, come on. Someone working on the online DM is having a laugh with this article summary:

"The sinister forces behind that threat to banish school skirts Thanks to the 13 years of Labour rule, lunatic Leftism now has more influence than ever. Its politically correct zealotry flourishes throughout the public sector and the quangos. "

Office bet on how far they can go and still get nutter commenters taking it seriously? Please?

A few points.1. Nobody is trying to ban skirts, they are just suggesting that forcing girls to wear skirts may be wrong.2. Why the inverted commas around lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth service and gender identity clinic? Do these services not actually exist? Are you quoting someone? Or are you just trying to pour scorn on services that do a very good job helping young LGBT people come to terms with their sexuality in what can still be a very diffcult environment?3. I believe you got 'sexualisation of children' mixed up with the desire to allow young people to explore and grow into their own sexual identity without fear of discrimination or prejudice.4.Learco Chindamo was born in Italy but spent most of his life and had most of his family in the UK. Thats why he was not deported. I have a friend who was born in America but left as a child and has lived in the UK for 20 years, with her family. Would you see her deported to America if she commited a crime? In short, C-

Moaning pensioners emigrate to paradises like Northern Cyprus (eh?), Thailand and Spain. Now this is the sort of story the Mail should be producing in much greater quantity to encourage the whinging old farts to p off and stop boring the pants off the rest of us.

I don't suppose this is a novel observation, but it does seem to be a fact that anything that is prefaced, in Mail-land, with 'bring back', such as hospital matrons, caning and hanging, is something that the majority of people who have managed to get over the fact that it is no longer 1955 feel no need of; and that anything prefaced by 'ban' is something invented after 1980. Facebook, mobile phones, that sort of thing. Has anyone ever observed the ultimate irony, 'ban the internet'?

And for people who spend their wretched lives moaning about 'the nanny state', the EU telling them what to do, the stout ranks of white, male middle England being ordered around by those nasty blacks, Muslims, Scots, Welsh and Irish, the government taking money off them, etc etc and on and on and on, they sure are keen on telling others what to do with their 'bring back' and 'ban'. I don't suppose the really novel idea of living and letting live and minding your own business has ever occurred to them.